Lew's AUTHOR BLOG

A historical novel, such as A FLOOD OF EVIL, must add the feelings, hopes, despairs, and occasional excitement of the characters to the historical world in which they live. Memoirs are one of the best sources and starting places for emotions which will be incorporated into the story.

JEWISH RESPONSES TO PERSECUTION is a collection of original source documents, with notes, expressing the views of Jews trying to survive the Nazi persecution from 1933 to 1938. Page after page is heartbreaking, depressing,infuriating …

SELECTED EXCERPTS …

… a growing feeling of powerlessness left many feeling isolated … unable even to comprehend the bewildering complexities and seeming inconsistencies of the Nazis’ actions

… What good does it do for her to work hard at school; she can’t achieve anything, can’t become anything; all paths are hopelessly closed for her

… As Jewish leaders tried to develop a strategy … individual Jews had difficulty asseessing what was happening and what was likely … individual experiences, plus stories told by relatives and friends, and even by the press, rarely added up to a consistent picture … sometimes brief periods of calm allowed cautious optimism

… Even a six-year-old recognizes the fear in the air … their faces become serious and anxious … a sense of their own inferiority becomes pervasive

… 10% of the Jewish deaths in Mannheim last year were suicides

… I was in Munich at the offices of the Bavarian Jewish communities concerning our move out of Germany … however they are completely powerless and cannot intervene to help me

… in Dachau … in the dark, a Jewish prisoner sings the prayer for lighting Sabbath candles … the men in the barracks hum along